UNIT 3. Chapter 15: Market Research Flashcards
Def. Market Research
This is the process of collecting, recording and analysing data about the customers, competitors and the market.
What are the needs of market research? (4)
- To reduce the risks associated with new product launches
- To predict future demand changes
- To explain patterns in sales of existing products and market trends
- To assess the most favoured designs, flavours, styles, promotions and packages for a product.
What’s the market research process? (1 ,2)
- Management problem identification: by setting out the problem accurately, the process can be directed accurately, without any unnecessary data gathered. e.g. Why are our sales falling?
- Research objectives: Must be set in the way that would provide all the information needed once accomplished. E.g. How many are likely to buy are products in country X?
- Sources of data - primary and secondary research.
Market process number 3: Definitions.
- Sources of data - Primary and secondary research
Primary research: new research, carried out to answer specific issues or questions. It can involve questionnaires, surveys or interviews with individuals or small groups. Secondary research: makes use of information previously researched for other purposes and publicly available.
What are the sources of secondary data? (7)
- Government publications e.g economic trends
- Local libraries and local government offices
- Trade organisations e.g Engineering Employers Federation
- Market intelligence reports e.g Key note report
- Newspaper reports and specialist publications e.g The financial times
- Internal company records e.g customer sale records
- The internet
What are the advantages and disadvantages? (3 3)
Advantages:
• Often cheap
• Obtained quickly
• Allows comparison of data of different source
Disadvantages:
• Out-of-date
• Data might not be relevant
• Not applicable for new product development (NPD)
What are the two methods of primary research? Definitions
Qualitative research: Research into the in depth motivation behind the consumer buying behaviour or opinions.
Quantitive research: research that leads to numerical results that can be statistically analysed.
Def. Focus Groups
A group of people who are asked about their attitude towards a product, service, advertisement, or new style of packaging. Is a way to collect qualitative research.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of focus groups? (3 2)
Advantages:
• Can be used as primary research
• Data tends to be more accurate and realistic
• Can have discussions.
Disadvantages:
• Time-consuming
• Difficult to analyse and to present
What are the quantitive research techniques? (3)
- Observation and recording: recording only what actually happens, no explanations.
- Test marketing: to promote and sell the product in limited geographical scale and record data.
- Consumer surveys: Directly asking potential consumers for their opinions and preferences.
What are the four important issues for market researchers to be aware of when conducting consumer surveys?
- Who to ask? Selecting a sample that reflect the characteristics of the survey population.
- What to ask? Questionnaire must be unbiased and unambiguous for it to be effective.
- How to ask? By telephone, or hard copy questionnaires or online questionnaires.
- How accurate is it? Assessing the likely accuracy and validity of the results.
Who to ask?
Def. Sample
The group of people taking part in a market research suvey selected to be representative of the overall target market.
What are the sampling methods? (3)
- . Simple random sampling: the samples are gathered in a process that gives all the individuals in the population equal chances of being selected.
- . Stratified sampling: when target populations have a lot of strata, interviewer chooses random sample from all strata.
- . Quota sampling: interviewer selects an appropriate number of respondent from each stratum in a stratified population.
What to ask?
Questionnaire design:
Open questions: those that invite a wide-ranging or imaginative response - the results will be difficult to collate and present numerically. e.g question: What do you think about this product?
Closed questions: Questions to which a limited number of pre-set answers is offered. e.g do you like this product? yes or no.
What other factors make a questionnaire effective? (6)
- Make the objective of the questionnaire clear to make clear questions
- Write clear questions
- Try to make sure questions are in order
- Avoid biased questions
- Use clear language
- Include some question that will allow classification of the sampler.
